"green" drives and hdparm

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Fri, Feb 20, 2009 at 09:16:35PM -0500, Matt Price wrote:
> anyone know much about this?  I will use old drives for the os(es) but
> hopefully a huge new drive for video.  i'd really like to have it
> parked//off when it's not in use -- that is, if nothing's recording or
> playing.  i remember there's been controversy about setting hd
> powersaving parameters, especially in ubuntu, where i\iirc there were
> lots of dead drives as a result of a bad policy decision....

Well if you power off the drive, that might take too long to spin up
again if you suddenly have video data to store.

Also spinning up takes power too.

The green drives from WD generally run lower RPM and hence are a bit
slower transfer rate, although often plenty for what you need, but by
running slower they use less power.

My experience also is that a drive lasts longer if you don't spin it
down ever.

-- 
Len Sorensen
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